LeVar Burton is truly a good dude. I’m excited about these stories, I had no idea he did this!
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I think these launched early into the pandemic/shut downs - that’s when I heard about them. I think he is also doing readings for kids.
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I was listening to them early last year, I think they’ve been around for a little bit.
I love the science fiction short stories so freaking much. It makes me want to read all the scifi anthologies.
Clarkesworld has all their science fiction shorts read on podcast. Some are long, but there’s some in the 30-45 minute range.
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Anyone have suggestions on how to make powder dish detergent work better? We switched from pods to powder when our local green bulk store opened and it’s just not doing a good job. Anything glass comes out cloudy, half the stuff still feels like there’s a film of gunk on it. I don’t want to have to basically hand wash all my dishes before using the dishwasher.
I’m not going to give up completely since we’ll be trying out a brand new dishwasher soon and maybe that will help, but if there’s anything I can do for the next 3 weeks that’d be cool.
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There is a liquid rinse aid. I’ve never used it, I just know it exists.
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If it seems to be powder residue, try putting white vinegar in the “rinse aid” cup of the dishwasher. If the dishwasher doesn’t have one, you could try putting a cup of vinegar sitting upright in the upper part or just pouring a cup of vinegar in after the first part of the wash cycle is done.
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Um you are the freaking best. Added to my podcast lineup, maybe I’ll actually do my chores and work on my drawing!
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If you like that, two more recs:
Breaking The Glass Slipper (podcast on women in scifi)
Imaginary Worlds (general discussion of SFF stuff)
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Yes yes yes. Thank you!
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How does venmo work? My little bro wants to send me money to contribute to presents but I dunno how to do it because compared to zoomers I am an old.
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A lot like Paypal (it’s owned by the same folks, IIRC). Set up account with Venmo. Input bank info and do the test payment thing. Send people your Venmo handle and they send you money, or vice versa.
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Ok, is it like, safe and all that? Putting in my bank account info to something always makes me nervous. I even tried to use mint for months trying to input everything by hand.
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I asked if he could send me a check and he was as perplexed by the concept as I was by him asking me to do Venmo. 
I’m not saying “oooh zoomers can’t do anything” like he knows how to write a check he’s just like “but why would you do that when we have the internet???”
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My understanding is that in terms of technical stuff, it’s the usual amount of secure. The big thing that freaks me out re security is that (at least historically?) payments you make to other people are by default public to other users; they can see how much you sent and any note you made. That is no bueno, you will need to hide that shit.
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That seems dumb. I won’t be sending bro money unless he wants it for his birthday so I don’t see it being a huge issue. But still why would that be the default?
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Because Social Media™?
I mean, I agree. It’s a terrible idea and it makes my head spin.
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It’s also terrible because you can get spam on payments set to public 
Found this out when a friend sent me money and got a series of comments with…interesting propositions.
My account is set to default private now lol
(Also one disadvantage with Venmo is that they’re not great with dealing with fraudulent transfers/scams, but hopefully that’s not something that happens often, if you literally only use it with family and friends you trust)
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The social thing on Venmo is silly but luckily you can change your privacy settings once and it sticks for all your activity in the future. I use it pretty regularly now, a couple times a month. Lots of restaurants, cafes, etc. near me used Venmo to quickly ramp up takeout, especially since they don’t get charged credit card fees that way.
Cashapp is the even more recent one, like the TikTok of payment apps. Seems popular amongst direct aid/activist groups. I once tried to set up an account real quick to buy watermelons from some guys in a van during a bike ride, but I think I was too old.
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I have a separate checking account that’s not linked to any other brick and mortar account. It’s attached to my paypal, circle, etc, and I keep just enough money in there to avoid fees ($500 since I have other large accounts at the same bank).
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